Never before in the history of the game have these Merseyside and Manchester giants been able to dip into a transfer well so deep – an astonishing £700million.

It is the wealthiest money market in the football world, with Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and – almost certainly – Ronald Koeman happily buying big in a bid for success next season.

Mourinho, who will pocket an eye-watering £10m a year in wages, has been handed a £200m cashpot to turn the Special One into the Spending One, as he begins the job of restoring United to Premier League title winners.

The fact that sacked Louis van Gaal frittered away more than £230m in his two years alienating United fans has had no bearing on the size of Mourinho’s transfer kitty.

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Guardiola arrives at The Etihad having just claimed the second domestic Double of his three campaigns at Bayern Munich and – with two Champions League triumphs on his CV while with Barcelona – he will be backed to the tune of another whopping £200m.

Klopp, who replaced Brendan Rodgers as Kop boss last October, will at last be able to buy his own men in a Liverpool facelift with up to £150m at his disposal.

And Koeman will have the same level of spending power if he – as expected – agrees to take the Everton hotseat, brought in at Roberto Martinez’s expense in a bid to end a barren spell dating back to their 1995 FA Cup victory.

In fact, if Everton sell Romelu Lukaku for £65m, that cash will be added to Koeman’s bounty, with new majority shareholder – Iranian-born billionaire Farhad Moshiri – promising to lure new stars with £100,000-a-week wages.

So money is definitely no object in an unprecedented ‘Star Wars’ between four managers who have riches beyond the wildest dreams of previous bosses.

Former City and United winger Peter Barnes remembers with fondness the battles of past bosses at either end of the Manchester Ship Canal – like Bill Shankly and Howard Kendall on Merseyside and Joe Mercer and Tommy Docherty in Manchester.

Barnes said: “The rivalry is a throwback to the seventies and eighties but this time around it’s different. “We’re talking here of £700m when, back then, they would be lucky to spend £700,000 between them.

“There’s so much money sloshing around to be spent by four of the best managers you’ll see”

Peter Barnes

“There’s so much money sloshing around to be spent by four of the best managers you’ll see.

“But Mourinho, Guardiola, Klopp and Koeman have to give the fans what they demand – they have to put bums on seats.

“This fab four have got to buy players with flair and creativity, players with the magnetism of an Eric Cantona. At United, generations have grown up watching George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton.

“A United team with wingers – that's the flair game Mourinho has to bring back to the club.”